The Last Three Letters in 'Principal' Spell 'Pal'
by Jules9
Summary: What happens after Buffy leaves Sunnydale, and how does Snyder tie into everything? (This story is supposed to occur sometime after Becoming: Part 2.)
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1  
  
Sunnydale High's Principal Snyder sat at his desk, skimming over some of his never ending paperwork. Things had been very quiet lately, and all he had to occupy himself was his work. This was the Hellmouth, though. The place all demons were drawn to. Quiet was only the lagtime before something big hit.  
  
"So this is what you've been doing for the past year and a half, huh?" a voice asked, interrupting him from his thoughts. "Paperwork?"  
  
Glancing up from his work, Snyder saw a short, street-wise looking man standing in front of him. He had on a round brimmed brown hat and his clothes spoke for themselves, a brown suit and neon green, collared shirt.  
  
"It's part of the job, isn't it? I followed your orders, Whistler. Monitor the Hellmouth's activity and report back to you with the details."  
  
"Yeah, you did your job, all right," Whistler agreed sarcastically. "The Hellmouth opened last year and the Master went free. Lucky for you, the slayer was there to kill him and close it before things got out of hand. It's a shame you let her go because now you have to go out and bring her back."  
  
"The slayer?"  
  
Snyder was confused. He knew someone had closed the Hellmouth, but his sources said it was Angel, the vampire with a soul. Did the slayer help him?  
  
"You know, you'd better find a more well-informed source to rely on," Whistler informed him. "You had the slayer right in front of you all this time and never even realized it." Chuckling, he continued. "You even sent her away when we needed her the most. Buffy Summers may not have been a great student, but she's saved us all more than once, yourself included, from what I'm told."  
  
"Summers?" In all his one hundred and sixteen years as a demon, the knowledge Snyder had acquired never would have led him to think Buffy could be the Chosen One.  
  
"How do you think she knew what to do when Spike and his men invaded the school on Parents' Night last year? Buffy's a really great, take-charge kind of person, just what you need to have in a slayer besides all that fighting stuff. She's a very intelligent girl, but you never seemed to notice. You were too busy yelling at her for being a 'delinquent teenager.' Don't you think she got enough of that at home and even before she came to Sunnydale? She couldn't just say, 'Hey, I'm the Chosen One. Cut me some slack, okay?' She toughed it out for all of our sakes, even slaying Angel, her own boyfriend, to save the world from Acathla, and for that you expelled her. It's no wonder she ran away."  
  
"If I had known-" Snyder began, but he didn't want to hear any of it.  
  
"I don't care. Just find her and bring her back. With the slayer gone, we've got a real crisis on our hands. Spike and Drusilla may have left and Acathla lies dormant, but there will always be something on the Hellmouth that requires our attention. Sometimes it just takes a little longer than others."  
  
Turning his back to the younger demon, Whistler started towards the door. Snyder's voice stopped him, though, and her turned back again to face him.  
  
"How do I find her?"  
  
"Talk to her friends or the librarian, her watcher. It might take a little doing on your part, but they'll tell you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a little hell to raise. My buddy Angel needs me."  
  
And with that, he was gone, leaving Snyder to his thoughts. He had messed up big, and now it was up to him to fix it... 


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2  
  
"Sit down," Principal Snyder instructed the student in front of him. "We need to talk."  
  
"Am I in trouble?" Willow Rosenburg asked in a squeaky tone. She had never been called to the principal's office before, but from what Buffy had told her about the man, it wasn't a pleasant experience.  
  
"No, Miss Rosenburg. I just want to ask you a few questions. Your friends will answer the same ones."  
  
"Okay," she answered hesitantly, not sure what this was all about. "I'll try to help you as best I can, then."  
  
Snyder smiled, a tight-lipped little grin that looked very unusual on his normally frowning face. Willow could feel her nervous heart hammering in her chest as she waited for him to begin.  
  
"Thank you. Okay, first question: Where is Buffy Summers?"  
  
***  
  
Outside Snyder's office about twenty minutes later, Willow, Xander, and Oz waited as Cordelia was grilled inside. Willow and Xander had compared their stories, and Snyder had indeed asked them the same thing: Where was Buffy?   
  
The only problem was, they didn't know. Not for sure, anyway. They did have some ideas like checking Angel's apartment and calling Buffy's father in LA, but none of them worked out, leaving them more worried. She had left almost a week before, right after slaying Angel, and no one had heard a word from her except a call to her father saying she was all right. He relayed the message to her mom, but that didn't make her parents worry any less.  
  
"What do you think he wants with Buffy?" Willow asked the others curiously.  
  
"Maybe he's sorry he expelled her, and he wants her to come back to school," suggested Oz. Giles had told them that Snyder had expelled the girl after he found her on school property, brandishing a sword in her hands. He even threatened to press criminal charges if he ever saw her again.  
  
"No, Snyder's too cruel for apologies," Xander disagreed. "With our luck, he's probably either a demon or a friend of a demon looking to find the slayer." Little did he know how right he was.  
  
The opening of a door interrupted the group and Snyder and Cordelia stepped outside. Oz stood, ready for his turn, but Snyder had no need for him.  
  
"Miss Chase told me everything I needed to know. Thank you all for coming. You may go back to class now."  
  
Re-entering his office, Snyder closed the door behind him. He had his lead, albeit a small one, and it was time to follow it. This meant a trip out of town... 


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3  
  
Giles lay asleep behind the library counter. He had taken to patrolling at night since Buffy had gone, and the lack of sleep was catching up with him. When the four teens came in, arguing loudly and animatedly among themselves, he was jolted awake.  
  
"Wha-" He adjusted his glasses on his nose. "What's going on?" he demanded, a little edgy from tiredness.  
  
"Miss May Queen here just told Snyder where to find Buffy," Xander informed him, giving his girlfriend a pointed look.  
  
"Newsflash for you, Xander. We don't know where she is," Cordelia said in rebuttal. "I just told him where I thought she could have gone."  
  
"Do you think he wants to put her in jail?"  
  
Willow looked at her friends worriedly. She didn't want anything bad to happen to any one of them. They had all been through so much together. Mr. Snyder was an evil man, though. Who knew what he wanted?  
  
"No, he's probably just following a school protocol or something," Oz tried to assure her, taking her hand in his.  
  
"Oh," she said, calming herself. "Good."  
  
"Wait a minute," Giles interrupted. "What are you all talking about? Cordelia, please explain to me what has Xander so upset."  
  
"Okay, so here's what happened. Principal Snyder called us all down to his office, during our lunch break of course, which ends in like five minutes. Anyway, he took us one by one into the office and started grilling us about where Buffy was.  
  
"Of course, Willow and Xander didn't tell him anything because we don't even know where she is, but I just suggested he check down in LA because she lived there before she moved to Sunnydale. She might be staying with some friends or something since her mom said she didn't have enough money to make it all the way to Mexico. After that, he said he didn't need to talk to Oz, and he let us all go."  
  
"I don't even see why she had to tell him that," Xander told the librarian. "It's not like he cares or anything. He certainly didn't care when he expelled her. That's for sure."  
  
"Overprotective much, Xander?" Cordelia asked him.  
  
"As a matter of fact, yes, Cordy, I am," Xander snapped at her. "When a guy's best friend is expelled and missing for a week he starts to get a little worried about her."  
  
"Chill out, will you?" she asked, folding her arms over her chest. "What's he going to do, single her out from all the thousands of people in LA, even if she is there? Please." She scoffed. "Get real." 


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4  
  
When Snyder arrived in Los Angeles, he found himself in the exact bus stop where Buffy had stopped. For his line of work, he was well suited. Whistler and all of his 'men' had the ability to read minds and even see flashes of a person's memory if they concentrated hard enough. That was how he knew she'd been there.  
  
It also showed him the things Buffy had done. When he focused, he could see inside her head as she burned that gymnasium at her old school and how all the vampires inside were engulfed in flames before collapsing into piles of ash. He watched as she kissed Angel goodbye and then plunged that sword into his stomach as he was swallowed up by the vortex and taken down to hell. From what Whistler had said, though, it seemed like Angel might be making a return in the near future.  
  
Demons of his kind were also given a magical power to teleport to any place they wanted as long as it was in the present. They could only travel back or forward in time in their minds or someone else's. Once history was written, there was no way to rework it. That was why they were chosen to be sent to Earth to try and right people's wrongs before anything drastic happened. If he didn't find Buffy in time and the Hellmouth somehow opened, all of Whistler's work along with everyone else's would have be in vain, and there would be hell to pay... literally.  
  
Standing at one of the gates, he closed his eyes and allowed his mind to travel back until a time when Buffy herself had stood there, wracking her brain for an idea of where to go. She'd called her father from a payphone and assured him that she was all right and he should tell her mother the same. Then she quickly hung up and walked away. The next image he saw was a large neon sign reading 'LA Motel.' Very original.  
  
Taking a deep breath - Yes, some demons were able to breathe - he blocked his mind to everything else but that place and vanished into thin air.  
  
***  
  
Buffy lay sprawled out on her back on the small bed in her motel room, her eyes staring up at the ceiling. It wasn't much, just a square room with a queen-sized bed and tiny bathroom, but it was home now. She figured she'd wait a little while until the search for her back home died down and then get a job, a real one, and maybe move into something a little more comfortable. This would do for now, though.  
  
Until then, there wasn't much for her to do. LA was a very high profile city, and a lot of people knew her there. If she went outside it was very probable she'd run into one of her old friends or her parents', and then they'd want to know why she was there and was she travelling by herself... It was too much of a hassle to deal with, but still she remained in the city. It gave her an odd sense of belonging, even though Sunnydale was really home now. She just had so many wonderful memories...  
  
Things were only beginning for her vampire-wise when she lived there. Now they were ending. With her missing in action Giles would inevitably call the Watcher's Bureau or maybe it was just some weird sensing thing that only they could feel. She didn't really know.   
  
He might try to take her place for a little bit, but it wouldn't work out. He would never admit it, but he was far past his prime. Physically, at least. He could never take on the slayer's duties alone.  
  
A knock on the door broke her from her thoughts of home, and she groaned. It was a good thing since she hadn't stopped thinking since her arrival, but she didn't feel up enough to get it.  
  
"Come back later," she muttered, half-awake.  
  
It was time for her to take yet another nap. That was all she really felt like doing, besides berating herself for murdering her only love...  
  
The knocking continued and she yelled, "Come back later!" turning over onto her stomach and covering her head with a pillow. But still it continued.  
  
Squeezing her eyes shut, Buffy crushed the pillow against her head, but she could still hear that relentless knocking. It was driving her crazy!  
  
Finally, she got herself up and padded to the door to answer it and give the person behind it a piece of her mind. Boy, was she in for a shock when it opened and Principal Snyder stood before her.  
  
"Oh, God, I'm having a nightmare..." 


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5  
  
"Miss Summers, I can assure you, you are very much awake," Mr. Snyder told her, walking into the room. "Now, I need to talk with you. It's very important that you come back to Sunnydale with me and protect the hellmouth. Now, I can get all the charges against you dropped and re-enroll you at the school..."  
  
"I am dreaming," Buffy murmured, closing the door with a befuddled expression on her face. "Someone pinch me."  
  
To her surprise, he did, and she exclaimed, "Ouch! Why did you do that?"  
  
"You asked me to," Snyder replied, deadpan.  
  
"Yeah, but people don't really expect you to do something like that," she explained, rubbing her arm where a little red mark was now showing. "It's just something people say just like 'You're driving me crazy,' which, by the way, you sort of happen to be."  
  
"Stupid human expressions," Snyder muttered, shaking his head. "That's why they need help saving this pitiful world. Humans are naïve. They don't know anything besides what they've been told or somehow dreamed up using their crazy imaginations."  
  
The fog she'd been surrounding herself in began to clear, and Buffy looked at him quizzically. She knew she was awake now, and Snyder was with her. The only question was why? And what was his interest in her going back to Sunnydale?  
  
"My reasons for wanting your return, Miss Summers," he told her, reading her mind to her amazement, "are purely for the safety of this world. I was the one who sent you away, and now here I am asking you to come back."  
  
"Who are you, and who sent you?" She knew he couldn't be human from his low idea of them, but then what was he?  
  
"The same as Whistler. He's the one who sent me."  
  
Buffy sighed, running her fingers through her unstyled hair. "That guy never knows when to mind his own business, does he?" She smiled grimly and asked, "Give me one reason why I should go back."  
  
"Your boyfriend, Angel. Whistler went to bring him back." 


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6  
  
"So what exactly are you looking for?" Xander wondered, watching as Willow typed furiously away at the keyboard in front of her. Oz and Cordelia had gone back to their classes, but they both had a free period and decided to spend it in the library as they always did.  
  
"I'm doing a brief background check on Principal Snyder," she said, her eyes never leaving the screen, "just to see if we can figure out why finding Buffy means so much to him."  
  
"Find anything?"  
  
"Just his college credentials. I figured I'd work my way backward. They're perfect."  
  
"That always means something bad," her friend told her. "I saw it in that movie 'Tomorrow Never Dies.' James Bond had impeccable credentials, and that's how they knew he was a secret agent."  
  
"Xander, I wouldn't compare real life to a Bond film." She turned her head to look at him. "Things work a little differently here."  
  
"Yeah, yeah. Just keep looking, okay?" he said impatiently.  
  
Rolling her eyes, Willow turned back to the screen and resumed her search. All the way through his life Snyder never made one slip. He was squeaky clean except for...  
  
"He doesn't have a birth certificate."  
  
***  
  
Buffy suddenly felt faint and sat down on the edge of her bed. Whistler was going to bring Angel back. There was a way. How?  
  
"You'll have to come back with me to find out," the demon in front of her said, feeling a tinge of sympathy for this young girl and her predicament.  
  
"How do I know you're telling me the truth?" she asked, curiosity filling her blue-gray eyes.  
  
"Demons don't lie. Not the good kind, anyway."  
  
Buffy thought for a moment. If there was any possibility her Angel could return, she was willing to take the risk.  
  
"If I come back you'll be able to get the charges against me dropped, and I can go back to school?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And you won't give me and my friends such a hard time anymore?"  
  
"Now that I know you're the slayer, no. If they're connected to you, I'll try to be more understanding."  
  
She nodded, mulling things over in her head. Finally, she was ready to answer.  
  
"I'll go."  
  
Nodding, Snyder closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The next second they were gone... 


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7  
  
Buffy saw everything go black, and then, in the next moment, she was standing inside Angel's apartment, right in front of the door. She had no clue how she had gotten there, but Snyder was standing beside her. Very faintly, she heard Whistler speaking to someone.  
  
"Don't worry, pal. She's on her way. Just try and rest."  
  
"Angel," she whispered softly, rushing over to where his bed sat in the corner of the room.  
  
He lay in bed, obviously tired and pale with a slightly dazed look on his face. His time in hell had obviously not gone well. Whistler sat down in a chair next to him, but stood when he saw her.   
  
"Buffy?" Angel managed to ask in a weak voice.  
  
"Yeah, I'm here," she told him reassuringly, sitting down and lovingly caressing his face. "Don't worry about anything. You're gonna be fine. Just listen to Whistler and get some rest, okay? I'll be here when you wake up."  
  
He nodded and shut his eyes, immediately falling asleep. Leaning over him gently, she placed a tender kiss on his forehead. She hadn't killed him. He was going to be okay...  
  
Standing, she made her way back to the other side of the room where Whistler was standing. Somehow, he had brought Angel back to her, and she owed him for it.  
  
"Just you being back here and watching over things is enough for me," he said, his mouth curved upward in an odd little smile. "Snyder went back to get your things."  
  
"Why did you do this?" she asked, astounded by his generosity.  
  
The demon shrugged. "It was just a little incentive to make sure you came back. Besides, I wasn't going to leave my buddy Angel down there in hell for eternity. We go way back, longer than you and he do.  
  
"I was the one who recruited him to help you. You should have seen him. He was a real mess before I came, living on the streets in Manhattan and feeding off rats whenever he could. And God, did he stink. Anyway, I met up with him one night and brought him to LA to check you out. I guess you must've made a big impression on him because he really turned his life around."  
  
Buffy smiled. Angel had been watching her even before she knew it, and it was all due to Whistler and his crew of 'good demons' as Snyder had called them.  
  
"I don't understand, though. How did you bring him back? I had to kill him to stop Acathla..."  
  
Whistler chuckled. "You live on the hellmouth and fight demons for a living, yet you think this is amazing? Angelus woke Acathla, and his blood needed to be shed to stop him. Angel had nothing to do with it, besides the fact that Angelus was inside him. I simply brought back Angel, not his demon.  
  
"It's a good thing I did, too. He wasn't doing too well down there after Angelus went loose. There's a lot of nasty stuff in hell, you know? Angel doesn't deserve that."  
  
"So he'll be fine in a few days, right? That 'superhuman' vampire healing stuff?"  
  
Again, Whistler laughed at her foolishness. These silly humans...  
  
"I brought Angel back, not Angelus," he informed her calmly. "Without the demon, he's human again. It's going to take longer for him to heal. You stuck a sword through his stomach, remember? That's pretty painful stuff. He's bandaged all over, but give him some time to recuperate, and then he'll be as good as new."  
  
Giggling hysterically at this news, Buffy grabbed him in a tight hug. "Thank you. Thank you so much."  
  
"Hey, hey," Whistler said, trying to break away from her. These humans and their stupid emotions. It was no wonder they got themselves in so much trouble. "It's no big deal. Really." After a few minutes of struggling around in her arms, she finally let him go.  
  
"That was nice," Snyder's voice interrupted, Buffy's bag at his side. "Very moving." Whistler gave him a look and straightened out his wrinkled clothing. "I brought back your things, and the bill's taken care of."  
  
"Thanks," Buffy told him, a little embarrassed. He was always chiding her for not acting maturely...  
  
"We'd better get going," Whistler declared, nodding to his protégé. "Take good care of Angel, okay? He loves you, and I know you love him, too."  
  
Smiling, Buffy nodded. Within seconds, the pair was gone, and she was left alone to tend to Angel... 


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8  
  
"So what do you think he is? Some kind of evil wizard?" Cordelia asked, leaning over the table and whispering to her friends conspiratorily.  
  
When Willow and Xander told her and Oz that Snyder didn't have a birth certificate listed in his files and that his credentials were impeccable, they came to the conclusion that Xander was right. Snyder had to be or somehow connected to a demon. Why else would he be so interested in finding his least favorite student?  
  
They'd decided to meet in the Bronze and try to figure out what was up. The only problem was they weren't making that much headway. Actually, none at all...  
  
"I thought it was warlock," Willow said, confused. "Actually, he could be one of those. Except, wouldn't he have used his magic to solve some of our problems before all of this started?"  
  
"He could just be a grumpy, balding man going through a mid-life crisis," inputted Xander. "But a warlock would be more interesting, you were right about that, Cordy."  
  
"Well, at least we know he's not a vampire," Oz said, leaning back a bit in his chair.  
  
"Yeah, we've definitely had enough of those," Willow agreed.  
  
A man standing behind the bar answered the outdated rotary dial phone beside him and said a few words into the receiver. Covering the mouthpiece with his hand, he yelled out, "WILLOW ROSENBURG!"  
  
Continuing their talk at the table, Willow and her friends were discussing things animatedly when Oz heard someone shouting over the loud music. He may not have been in werewolf form and he may be the lead guitar player in a very loud rock band, but he still had excellent hearing.  
  
"Hey, Willow? Some guy's calling for you."  
  
"Huh?" He nodded toward the bar where the bartender was continuing his shouting and got up and excused herself, heading toward the bar.  
  
"Willow Rosenburg?" the man asked her. She nodded, and he handed the phone over to her. "You have a call."  
  
Willow put the phone up to her ear, blocking the noise out of the other one with her hand, and asked loud enough to be heard over the blaring music, "Hello?"  
  
"Willow, hey," Buffy greeted her softly, walking across the floor in Angel's apartment.   
  
"Buffy!" Willow exclaimed. "Where are you?"  
  
"I'm at Angel's," the voice on the other end of the line answered. "It's a long story, but I just wanted to tell you I'm okay. I called your house and your mom said you went out, but I just thought..."  
  
"Wait a second. Why are you whispering? And what are you doing at Angel's apartment?"  
  
Willow was full of questions for her friend. You can't just skip town and then show up and expect everyone to accept you just like that...  
  
"Okay." Buffy sighed, running a hand through her hair while holding the phone with the other. "Let me give you the condensed version. I didn't have to kill Angel, just Angelus. But they both went to hell, and a demon - a good one named Whistler who was one of Angel's friends - went to hell and brought him back as a human. Whistler's really Principal Snyder's boss - He's a demon, too - and Snyder went to this really sleazy motel in LA and brought me back to guard the Hellmouth. Got all that?"  
  
"Snyder's a demon and Angel's human?" Willow asked in bewilderment. "Wow."  
  
"Yeah, wow. Angel was hurt pretty bad, though, but Whistler said he'll be okay. I'm just being quiet because I don't want to wake him. I actually shouldn't be on the phone for too long so can you tell everyone I'm okay and I'll be back in school really soon? Snyder's going to get the charges dropped and re-enroll me. He said he'd even try to be nicer to you guys, too."  
  
"Wow," repeated Willow. "Being the Chosen One certainly has its advantages."  
  
Buffy laughed. "I guess you could say that. Look, I gotta go. Can you just tell the others?"  
  
"Sure. Bye."  
  
Hanging up the phone and handing it over the counter to the bartender, Willow got up and headed back to her seat. Sitting down, she struggled for a way to explain things to her friends.  
  
"Who was it?" Cordelia wanted to know.  
  
"Uh, Buffy. She's back, and she wanted me to tell you she's okay."  
  
"She's back? Since when? Where was she?" Xander wanted details.  
  
"I guess just now," Willow said, trying to piece things together. "She was really busy so she had to get off the phone. But she was in LA," Cordelia looked at her boyfriend smugly, and he gazed down into his soda, "and you won't believe what she told me..." 


	9. Chapter 9

*The song used is Sarah McLachlan's "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" off the album with the same title.*  
  
CHAPTER 9  
  
Willow candidly told the group about her phone conversation with Buffy, using her hands to show her feelings. They moved about as she spoke of LA and how Cordelia had been right and Xander wrong. He did have nothing to worry about, though, because Buffy was on Snyder's good side now that he knew she was the slayer. Heck, he was even going to try and be nicer to them. Buffy seemed to have accomplished quite a lot on her trip...  
  
All the fear has left me now  
I'm not frightened anymore  
It's my heart that pounds beneath my flesh  
It's my mouth that pushes out this breath  
  
And, if I shed a tear, I won't cage it  
I won't fear love  
And, if I feel a rage, I won't deny it  
I won't fear love  
  
Whistler and Snyder walked with their heads bowed down an alley in downtown Sunnydale quietly, the sound of their shoes clicking on the pavement the only audible noise. They communicated telepathetically as they moved toward the old brick building where Snyder's apartment was located, 'speaking' about how to watch over the slayer and get more involved in her work. If her friends, mere mortals except for the werewolf, were able to make a difference even by researching, imagine what they as demons could accomplish.  
  
One thing was for certain. Life on the hellmouth would never be as crazy as it had been those past six months. Now that they were more informed of the situation, Buffy had two very powerful allies in her fight against the vampires and the 'bad' demons and monsters...  
  
Companion to our demons  
They will dance, and we will play  
With chairs, candles, and cloth  
Making darkness in the day  
It will be easy to look in or out  
Upstream or down without a thought  
  
And, if I shed a tear, I won't cage it  
I won't fear love  
And, if I feel a rage, I won't deny it  
I won't fear love  
  
Buffy yawned, covering her mouth with her hands. She had been watching Angel for a couple of hours as he slept peacefully, the calm expression the only natural looking thing on his pale face. She had debated taking him to a hospital, but how would she explain the wound on his stomach?  
  
'Oh, I just shoved a sword through his abdomen. He'll be okay.'  
  
It was better for him to stay at home where she could keep an eye on him. Besides, she wasn't ready to go home just yet. She and her mother hadn't left things on the best terms. She had made a promise to herself, though, when she heard Angel would be all right. She would stay until he woke up and then go back home to talk things over with her mother and call her dad to reassure him she was okay.  
  
She had learned a valuable lesson that past week. She couldn't leave her family and her life when things got tough. There were many people counting on her. The whole world, actually. She had people who loved and needed her. They were too important to abandon.  
  
Yawning again, she rubbed her eyes tiredly. All those naps hadn't done anything more than lessen her sleep deficit, she realized. Being the slayer was tough work, a lot of sleepless nights. A week's worth of sleep couldn't make up for all she had lost.  
  
Gently lifting the covers up at the edge of the bed, she slid underneath them, careful not to disturb the man sleeping beside her. 'Man.' Angel was a man. Smiling, she pondered that thought as she snuggled a teeny bit closer to him and closed her eyes, immediately drifting off to sleep...  
  
Peace in the struggle  
To find peace  
Comfort on the way  
To comfort  
  
And, if I shed a tear, I won't cage it  
I won't fear love  
And, if I feel a rage, I won't deny it  
I won't fear love... 


End file.
